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Cleveland women who disappeared as teens found alive in home

Three women abducted between 2000 and 2004 are found at a Cleveland house, not far from where two were last seen. Three suspects are arrested.

By Star wire services

Mon., May 6, 2013

CLEVELAND—Three women individually abducted between 2000 and 2004 were found alive on Monday at a house in Cleveland, a short distance from where at least two of them were last seen.

Cleveland police said a 52-year-old school bus driver and his two brothers, ages 50 and 54, have been arrested based on information given to investigators by the three women after their rescue, according to Deputy Chief Ed Tomba, who said the women had probably been held in that house since they vanished.

The three women were identified as Gina DeJesus, Amanda Berry and Michelle Knight. Police Chief Michael McGrath says a 6-year-old also was in the home.

Dozens of police officers and sheriff’s deputies remained at the scene late Monday awaiting a warrant to search the building.

According to police, neighbour Charles Ramsey heard screaming from the house next door and rushed over. One of the women used his cellphone to call 911.

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“Help me! I’m Amanda Berry. I’ve been kidnapped and I’ve been missing for 10 years and I’m here. I’m free now,” Berry is heard frantically telling a 911 emergency operator in a recording of the call released by police and posted on the website of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Georgina "Gina" Dejesus, who vanished in April 2003, when she was 14, is pictured age-progressed to 19 years old in an undated handout poster released Monday by the Ohio Attorney General. Dejesus is one of three women found alive in a Cleveland house Monday. (Ohio Attorney General / REUTERS)

These family photos obtained Monday courtesy of the FBI show Amanda Berry, left, and Georgina DeJesus, who went missing as teenagers about a decade ago and have been found alive in a residential area of Cleveland, along with a third woman, Michelle Knight. (FBI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

This 2004 photo shows Felix DeJesus holding a banner with his missing daughter's photograph in front of a memorial in his living room in Cleveland. Police say his daughter Gina is one of three women found alive in a Cleveland home Monday. (Tony Dejak / The Associated Press file photo)

Neighbour Charles Ramsey, who heard the three missing women screaming from the house next door and lent them his cellphone to call 911, speaks to reporters on Seymour Ave., Cleveland. (Scott Shaw / The Associated Press)

Tasheena Mitchell, cousin of Amanda Berry, is overjoyed upon learning Berry, who disappeared as a teen, had been found alive with two other abducted women. (Gus Chan / The Associated Press)

Members of the FBI evidence team remove items from a house in Cleveland on Monday. (Mark Duncan / AP)

Amanda Berry (centre) is reunited with her sister (left) in a Cleveland hospital Monday. (The identity of the girl on the right has not been established.) Berry and two other women who had been missing for a decade were found alive in a house not far from where they were last seen. Three men have been arrested in the case. (AFP/GETTY IMAGES/WOIO TV)

Amanda Berry (centre) is reunited with her sister (left) in a Cleveland hospital Monday. (The identity of the girl on the right has not been established.) Berry and two other women who had been missing for a decade were found alive in a house not far from where they were last seen. Three men have been arrested in the case. (AFP/GETTY IMAGES/WOIO TV)

During the call, she gives the name of her alleged abductor and said he was “out of the house.”

All three women were taken to a hospital, where they were reported to be in good medical condition.

Police identified one suspect as Ariel Castro, 52, a bus driver for Cleveland public schools.

His uncle, Caesar Castro, who owns a grocery store on the same street, said his nephew owned the house where the three women were found.

“Everyone is shocked,” said the elder Castro. He said he had known his nephew to be “a good guy” and a musician who played the bass.

Police said Berry and DeJesus both went missing as teens. Berry vanished at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school in April 2004. Police said Knight was 20 when she went missing around 2000.

Loved ones said they hadn’t given up hope of seeing the women again.

“I’ve been praying, never forgot about her, ever,” Kayla Rogers, a childhood friend of DeJesus, told the Plain Dealer. “This is amazing. This is a celebration. I’m so happy. I just want to see her walk out of those doors so I can hug her.”

Berry’s cousin Tasheena Mitchell said she couldn’t wait to have Berry in her arms. “I’m going to hold her, and I’m going to squeeze her and I probably won’t let her go.”

Sadly, Berry’s mother, Louwana Miller, died in 2006. Family and friends said she spent her final three years looking for her daughter and it took a toll on her health.

An Amber Alert was not issued when DeJesus failed to return home because no one witnessed her abduction. That decision angered her father, Felix DeJesus.

The search for the missing girls took many strange turns over the years.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers did not find her body during a search of the men’s house.

In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus’ body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4½ years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry, who was last seen the day before her 17th birthday. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry’s remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.

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